


Breath of X'us'R'iia

by jennity



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 18:45:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13665051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennity/pseuds/jennity
Summary: The desert storm kicked up the sand, beating against her violently. It was a crazy, random happenstance that led him to her, really. A prayer answered, a life bought for the simple pleasure of a cool drink, fresh food and….darkness.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [In_Saecula_Saeculorum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_Saecula_Saeculorum/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Persephone](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/357237) by Vixy & Tony. 



> Breath of X’us’Riia: Jakku's Teedo believe that their world's massive sandstorms, fierce winds and violent debris whipping at citizens, villages, and anything else in its destructive path, manifest from the breath of their goddess.
> 
> If you'd like to hear an awesome filk duo who have written the song that inspired me to choose this portion of the prompt, have a listen: http://vixyandtony.com/lyrics_persephone.html#select=Lyrics

Rey had not meant to wander as far as she had. She hadn’t intended to get herself trapped in a decrepit imperial wreckage, once glorious in its technical and mechanical wonder, now gloriously horrifying, and bound to be her grave.

Having never had a family of her own that she can recall, having grown up on her own in the desert, Rey was well aware of the possibility of the fickle weather swiftly turning against you.  
Unfortunately, the last few trips to the marketplace had left her worse for wear, Unkar Plutt giving her far less than the value of her spoils and gleefully watching as she glared, taking them begrudgingly, refusing to acknowledge his less….savory offers for portions and water.

That led her further through the battle-worn graveyard than she’d ever been. She had found a half-submerged ship, a marvelous hunk of metal and plastisteel and glass that had once been spotless but now is rough and faded, broken in places. Nearly thirty years of elements, largely metal-melting heat and scouring winds and whipping of sand, had taken the once majestic ships and turned them to junk. But this one, this one was mostly untouched by other scavengers, apparently having been hidden beneath heavy drifts of sand, open only where the shattered glass had let a little light shine through. She had found a veritable treasure trove of pieces and parts of machinery she could use not just for bartering, but for improving her own collection: speeder, flight simulator.

She had packed the side bags of her speeder and her sack on her back to bursting, carrying anything portable of worth in case she couldn’t find this site again. Whatever she couldn’t use herself she could save to sell to Unkar at a later date. It would be enough to fill her belly and hydrate her for a month and a half, which would be helpful….

Except… none of that mattered, now. If she couldn’t get home, she wouldn’t survive the night. Between the wild fauna of the desert and the wrath of X’us’Riia, even if she didn’t starve to death or die of dehydration, she’d end up just another artifact buried in the sand.

No one to know she’s missing. No one to miss her. She was no one and now will never be anyone.

 

She clenched her eyes shut tight, listening to the pounding of the sands and the whistling and howling of the winds. She was trapped in a shuttle that had mostly survived the wear of time, but it was small and cramped and low on air. She was used to small and cramped. Her AT AT home was just that, a small space that gave her shelter and kept her relatively safe. She wouldn’t have minded this, so much, if the sands hadn’t shifted to block her only exist. The sands made the door too heavy and the pressure too powerful to try to break the plastisteel, lest the sand come pouring in.

For now, at least, she was alive. For now, at least, she was awake and aware. She hadn’t passed out yet, and that was progress in and of itself.

Normally speaking, Rey wasn’t one for religion. She had faith in the return of her family, but she had no such belief in a higher being--- and even if she did think it existed, she wouldn’t want to worship it because it clearly doesn’t care about its creations.

Despite this, she sighed out a small prayer. “Please,”

Silence, but the sound of her shallow ragged breathing and the storm raging outside,

“Please, if you care at all, please show me mercy. I want to to live... or at least...survive..?"

That was when she heard it.  
Just over the sound of the storm.  
It sounded like...like footsteps. Footsteps on steel, somehow both muted and echoing. She whipped her head around in a panic, but no one was in the small space with her.

More footsteps, followed by an eerie pounding on the sand-blocked exit door.

And then silence. No more howling and whistling, no more noise, nothing but silence.

And the door opened.

 

 

~*~

 

 

He normally didn’t interfere with the mortals, typically unable to contain his ire for their inconsequential little lives and their incessant need for attention and approval. They fought and killed one another for the sake of survival and expected, somehow, to be rewarded?

He didn’t know why he heard her plea. He didn’t know what stirred in his chest to make him listen to it. He didn’t know why he cared.

But he did. 

When the Scavenger Girl’s breath was drawing more frantic and shallow, when she whispered her desire to survive, not to live as most mortals would have pled for, he was struck by a kind of curiosity he didn’t expect. Her begging echoed in his head and because this was so peculiar he decided he would be remiss to disregard the unusual occurrence. 

 

He calmed the sands of X’us’R’iia, commanding them to still and fall around him. He approached the sunken and derelict behemoth of a ship and pounded on the metal, mostly to make her aware before he threw open the door.

What he found was a wide- and wild-eyed, mousy creature of a girl, crouched into a ball and as far away from the door as she could manage. He cocked his head to the side, eyes narrow to inspect the cramped surroundings and determine what it was she was cowering from. The exit was no longer blocked, the sandstorm calmed, and her rescuer was standing before her and yet she shook with fearful tremors. He couldn’t comprehend the stupidity of mortals. Regardless, he reached out a hand for her, eyes catching and holding her own as he watched her pupils shift from full dilation, slowly contracting to adjust to the light shining in from behind him. 

 

 

 

~*~

 

 

Who was this…. person?  
She was stunned into silence, flabbergasted and afraid and short of breath now for a different reason. 

She was no longer afraid for a lack of oxygen, of dying alone and forgotten, buried out where no one was likely to find her remains and ransack her finds.  
No, now she was short of breath for entirely different reasons. The air was flowing in, but the winds were no longer whipping in the sandscape outside the door. In all her life, she’d never seen them calm so quickly. They come upon you all to fast, but they stay far longer and tend to gradually secede. She was gazing up at this man, towering over her and not speaking a word.

How had he survived the storm to arrive there? How was he not a windswept, dirty and injured mess? How had his footsteps echoed on sand? How did he shift the drifts in order to find the door to free her? And why was he standing there, in all this state, looking down at her as though she was a puzzle he couldn’t quite fit together?

And why did her heart flutter at the very sight of him?

~*~

 

He observed her as she studied him in awe and was taken aback when she succumbed to her shock, blacking out in a crumpled heap on her place on the floor, surrounded by sand.

Much to his consternation, he knew nothing of her. He could guess that she lived in one of the few villages, or, more accurately, outposts, more than half a day’s journey away, but he didn’t know which one, or who she was or belonged to. So he did what any (not usually) sensible god would do: he swept her up in his arms and carried her off to his realm, a kingdom of darkness and damp, quite a drastic divergence from her traditional home’s endless sunlight and scorching heat. 

When they had gone, he’d left the winds to their own devices. They refused to cease, this time joined with lightning and all the more perilous for it. It was as if the very conditions of the planet knew that something abhorrent had taken place: 

A mere mortal was taken away by a god, most unnatural and perverse, and the Breath of X’us’R’iaa made its fury known.

~*~


	2. Breathe Your Life Into Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which he waits, she wakes.

It had been several days in the mortal realm, and she was still unconscious. At first he was confused, then annoyed, and now he was getting anxious. Perhaps mortals couldn’t actually survive here? It had never occurred to him, as he had never wanted to bring one here with him. He cast a glance over her paling and shivering form. Color had drained from her face, her lips a dull purple bordering on blue. She almost looked like she belonged here, almost looked like the face of death. He didn’t know why, but his breath caught in his throat at that train of thought. The pit of his stomach pulled at him with dread and guilt, but his eyes narrowed in a pleased sort of smirk that contorted his face. He felt badly about it, sure, but if he were completely honest with himself he was also quite satisfied that she now looked as if she belonged to him. He longed for the day when she would open those wild eyes, cast them on him, and turn to him truly, completely. He wanted to know her, more, and he was growing impatient.

Even more mortal days had passed, and she was nearing Death now. His satisfaction had lessened significantly, now annoyed at the circumstances and at himself for interfering. What was the point of rescuing her if she wouldn’t even be able to appreciate him for it? Soon she’ll be as dead as she would have been weeks ago in that tomb of hers. Giving up hope for her recovery, he brushed his hand across her forehead, sweeping her out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. He could see the fluttering behind her eyelids, as if she was on the precipice of awakening and just needed a push to get there. He studied her carefully. He wanted to know her before she was truly gone. Once she slipped from her mortality, her shade would be little left of what she was when he first saw her, the fire in her spirit, the will to survive, the feeling of fierce independence he sensed in her, the longing for companionship. She’d just be another shadow in his realm, without a real mind of her own. Without faith in who she was, or who she wanted to become, or who she was waiting for. Frowning at the thought, he could feel her life draining from her. The hourglass that was her spirit was running through the final grains, slipping through the sieve of her consciousness. If he didn’t at least try to stir the sleeping girl, she would surely be lost within minutes. 

At this, his cool hands brushed along the sides of her face, the long column of her throat, and leaned over her still form. He brushed his lips over hers, eyes open and studying her reaction, looking for signs of life. With a gentle press of lips and tongue, he managed to open her mouth just enough to breathe into her, hoping that perhaps, in all of his time collecting lives, he may this once give one back. Her fluttering eyes began to twitch, her body which was limp and inanimate began shivering and shaking. He narrowed his eyes, studying the way the body moved, as if someone was pulling strings in an effort to shake her awake. He drew in another breath and exhaled it into hers, pulling away long enough to blink in surprise as the wide, wild eyes from that broken-down shuttle stared up at him.

He wasn’t expecting her to be so nimble after such a long state of practical non existence, but her body lurched upward and their foreheads collided, throwing him back in surprise, annoyance, and a smidge of what he assumed would have been a bruise if he were mortal. She was gasping for air, hunched over, shoulders shaking and hair falling in her face. Her eyes darted across her surroundings, dread and panic sinking into her nerves. “I’m dead..”

It wasn’t a question, or an accusation. It was a statement of fact. He rolled his eyes at this, “Not quite yet, no,” he voiced his disagreement. These were the first words they exchanged, and for the first time she took him in in all his appearance. He was a hulking mass of a man-- the same one who somehow found her in the Breath, the very same one who… was just leaning over her? Touching her lips? What …”the hell?” she murmured.

Again, an involuntary eye roll and a small ironic smirk. “Again….not quite….”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was inspired by the song Breathe Into Me, by Red.   
> Please forgive typos and whatnot. I'll go back and edit later, I just wanted to post this before I lose the guts to do so.
> 
> I don't know how many chapters this will end up being, but I hope you all enjoy it, particularly In_Saecula_Saeculorum. Sorry that the original chapter (and the rest of the fic) aren't quite long enough or complete enough. I wanted to give you more than what I'd written, so it'll be coming. Just slower than I thought it would be. :x Thank you for the prompt and I hope you enjoy it!
> 
>  
> 
> _And this is how it feels when I ignore the words you spoke to me/And this is where I lose myself when I keep running away from you/And this is who I am when I don't know myself anymore/And this is what I choose when it's all left up to me  
>  Breathe your life into me/I can feel you/I'm falling, falling faster/Breathe your life into me  
> I still need you/I'm falling, falling/Breathe into me  
> And this is how it looks when I am standing on the edge/And this is how I break apart when I finally hit the ground/And this is how it hurts when I pretend I don't feel any pain/And this is how I disappear when I throw myself away..._

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic written for the More Than Love: RFFA Valentine's Exchange 2018.  
> The prompt requested something along the lines of Hades and Persephone. I wanted to put a different spin on it.  
> I hope you enjoy!


End file.
